To get the co-ordinates of the cache go to the public phone box
across the road and make a note of the phone number...
01912ABCDEF
The final co-ordinates are
N55 04.A+1 B-7 C+4
W001 28.D-1 E+6 F-7
Willie Carr was born at Hartley Old Engine on April 3rd 1756 and
died on September 6th 1825. He was known as the Hartley Samson and
reputed at one time to be the strongest man in the United Kingdom.
His father was a master blacksmith and brought up his son in the
same trade. When he was 17 years old he was 6'3" tall, weighed 18
stone and could easily lift 7 or 8 hundredweight. While a youth he
could throw a 56lb weight with a 4lb one attached to it, either in
front or behind him a distance of 24 feet.
In these feats he was once challenged to a trial of muscular power
with the famous 'Mick Downey' but, on finding that Willie Carr had
appeared and was eager for the fray, Mick prudently left the
scene.
At 30 years of age Willie weighed 24 stone and was 6'4" in height.
On seeing him people were apparently struck - not with his great
height but with the size and fullness of his chest and the breadth
of his shoulders. When young, he was as agile as he was strong.
On one occasion, he jumped a five-barred gate with a young woman
weighing 8 stone under his arm. He would work for hundreds of hours
consecutively without rest and once helped five seamen trying to
move an anchor weighing half a ton and a piece of chain cable to
Willie's father's shop. They failed in the attempt and Willie was
sent to help them. He took up the anchor himself and carried it to
the shop.
It is said that Willie was quiet and gentle in his manners and
everyone held him in high esteem. He was a great favourite of Sir
John Hussey Delaval and he was a regular visitor to the hall where
he performed feats of strength for the very many party nights held
for the gentry from all over the country. Once when the famous 'Big
Ben' was at the hall, Willie was sent for to have a fight with him.
His Lordship introduced the combatants and asked that they should
shake hands. Willie bashfully held out his hand and took that of
his opponents in a vice-like grip causing blood to ooze from Ben's
fingertips.
Big Ben announced to His Lordship that he would decline combat and
said that he would rather receive a kick from a horse than a blow
from such a hand.
After the death of his father, Willie carried on the business in
the shop which stood on the south side of the salt pans and he
became famed as a maker of harpoons used in Greenland, making them
from iron made from old horse shoe nails obtained from the country
horseshoers. He employed boys in compactly filling them into iron
rings which, after being sufficiently heated to weld were put under
the hammer and consolidated - iron made this way was said to be
extremely tough and would stretch rather than break under the
immense strain to which harpoons were often subjected in capturing
whales.
One of the most remarkable anecdotes about Willie came from this
part of his business - He had been late in completing an order for
harpoons for the 'Euretta', Captain Boswell. It was not until the
morning of the day the ship was to sail that the harpoons were
finished and packed in a box. Willie took them down to Middleton
the carrier to be taken to Shields. He found the carrier had gone
earlier than usual but so that Captain Boswell should have his
harpoons, Willie lifted the box weighing 1 cwt. put it onto his
shoulder and carried it to Shields.
Another feat accomplished on the way was more remarkable still - he
drank 84 glasses of gin and returned home sober.
In 1818, he had a paralytic stroke and for a considerable time
before his death, he was confined to bed. He died on September 6th
1825.
In 1989 when plans for Keel Row Shopping Centre in Blyth were
firmly fixed, Philip Newton the then Chief Executive of the
Development Company Aureole Investments, saw a need for statue in
the central junction of the centre's Mall. Via his horseracing
connections, Philip was acquainted with Philip Blacker the famous
sculptor. His works, small bronzes of horses and riders, are
presented to winning owners and trainers following success in some
races. Philip Blacker was responsible for the life sized figure of
Red Rum unveiled at Aintree by the Queen Mother some years ago.
Philip Newton commissioned Philip Blacker to create a bronze statue
for Keel Row. After a visit to Blyth Library he decided that it
should be of Willie Carr. The Seaton Delaval historian Tom Allan
confirmed that Sir John Hussey Delaval had commissioned a portrait
of Willie Carr by the artist William Bell in about 1780. 'The
History of Blyth' states that this painting was removed from the
Hall and taken to Gibside. A further search revealed the painting
not at Gibside but by now residing at Glamis Castle, the estate of
the Earls of Strathmore. The Lady Mary of Strathmore authorised the
taking of a photograph of the painting so that Philip Blacker could
create a true likeness of Willie Carr and it is this wonderful
sculpture that we see in the Keel Row Shopping Centre today.